[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 22043-22044]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I know the START treaty is going to be 
before us soon. I realize we had a motion to proceed to that today. I 
think I have indicated a willingness to support the treaty if all the 
t's are crossed and the i's are dotted on modernization. I know there 
are a number of commitments that are forthcoming from the White House 
and other places regarding modernization.
  My hope is the same on missile defense. I am very concerned we are 
doing this in the middle of an omnibus, which is a 1,924-page omnibus. 
I am very concerned about a treaty of this substance, this seriousness, 
dealing with nuclear arms, being taken up in such a disconcerted way.
  I voted against the motion to proceed. I do hope, as the leaders 
indicated, all of those who wish to offer amendments--and I know there 
will be a number of serious and thoughtful amendments that matter--will 
be heard. I am still skeptical that can be done in an appropriate way.
  Again, I think this treaty, with the t's crossed and i's dotted, with 
the appropriate time allotted, whether it is now or it ends up being in 
February, and if the resolution is not weakened in any way, is still 
something I will plan to support. But I am very skeptical we can do 
that appropriately during this lameduck session, with this omnibus 
before us.
  Let me turn to the omnibus because that is what the American people 
are most focused on today. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that 
an appropriations bill of this size--one that has an increase in 
spending and over 6,000 earmarks--as a matter of fact, I know the Chair 
is aware of this because we had a great conversation this morning about 
spending. We had a large number of people on the Senate floor yesterday 
talking about our concern for fiscal issues. But the bill is 1,924 
pages long. These are just the earmarks. These are just the earmarks, 
not the bill itself I am holding.
  I am stunned that, after the message that was sent during this last 
election, Congress will basically say--or many Members--to the American 
people: We understand you are very upset and that you have concerns 
that are true concerns about the country's fiscal condition. Yet we 
don't really care.
  Mr. President, it is my hope that what will happen is that saner 
heads will prevail and that what we will do is pass a short-term CR--a 
continuing resolution, for those who may be listening in and don't know 
what that is. That would give us the ability to operate the government 
through February or March so that people such as the Presiding Officer, 
who was just elected, and myself and others who care so deeply about 
the fiscal issues of our country would have the ability to put spending 
constraints in place.
  I think everyone knows our country faces--and these are not 
rhetorical issues--a crisis as it relates to these issues. The world 
markets are watching us. I think we have seen our interest rates on our 
bonds rise pretty dramatically even since the tax bill came out. And 
that was a tough vote for me because, again, in order to create 
certainty and to ensure that the economic prosperity of this country 
resumed and that we continue on the pace we are on today, I felt it was 
important to go ahead and get that behind us.
  But I always thought and I hoped--and still do--that what we would 
move to very quickly is really driving down spending in relation to our 
country's gross domestic output. I have offered an amendment to do just 
that, as I did that on the tax bill. I plan to offer the same on this 
particular discussion we are having now. But I am unbelievably 
disappointed that we would even consider punting the spending issue for 
a year. That is what we would be doing. In essence, if this omnibus 
bill were to pass, we would be passing a huge spending bill.
  Again, let me go back. Typically, appropriations are handled one bill 
at a time. There are typically 12 appropriations bills. What happens 
when we do that is we are able to pick out wasteful programs here on 
the floor and maybe defund those, and we are able to really scrutinize 
all of the programs of government, which is what the American people 
want us to do. Instead of that--especially in a climate where the 
American people almost revolted at the polls, and I know you know this 
very well--instead of carefully considering our spending, what we are 
being

[[Page 22044]]

asked to do is to vote on 1 bill that has all 12 of those 
appropriations bills packed into it, again with 6,000 earmarks, and we 
are asked to vote on that here in the next few days. I think it is 
reprehensible, and I say that respectfully.
  I know people on our Appropriations Committee have worked together in 
a very serious way over the last year. I know they have. And I know the 
Appropriations Committee is a committee that probably has the most 
bipartisan spirit of any committee in the Senate. So I can understand 
their desire to want to finish their work. But it is being done 
inappropriately. This is not the way serious people conduct their 
business. They take up these bills one at a time. Sometimes there are 
two or three, when they are very small appropriations bills, that are 
banded together. That is called a ``minibus,'' if you will. But to do 
this all at once flies in the face of everything we know to be good 
government. All of us know this is not the right way to fund 
government.
  A much better way for us would be to pass a short-term continuing 
resolution bill, as I just mentioned, to kick this down to February or 
March and allow us to look at something like the amendment I have 
offered where we take spending that is at an alltime high of 24 percent 
of our gross domestic product today and over the next 10 years take it 
down to our 40-year average of 20.6 percent. Claire McCaskill and I are 
cosponsoring, in a bipartisan way, a bill or an amendment--depending on 
how it is offered--to do just that, and there may be other things.
  We know the deficit reduction commission just spent a tremendous 
amount of time--and I know the Presiding Officer has talked personally 
to leaders multiple times--they spent a tremendous amount of time this 
year looking at what we as a government need to do to be responsible; 
to make sure people around the world view our credit as something in 
which they are willing to invest; to really make sure that, for these 
pages who sit in front of me and who work so hard here, we are not, in 
essence, living a life and layering debt upon debt on top of the 
balance sheet they will have to deal with.
  I cannot believe that, in the atmosphere of just having that report 
come forward, having us look at how Draconian the problem is and some 
of the tough decisions a courageous Congress would need to make to put 
our country back on the right path, we would even consider passing this 
massive piece of legislation that, in essence, would kick the can down 
the road for a year and basically let the wind out of this momentum 
that has been building for us to actually do the right thing. I can't 
imagine we would do that.
  I know the Chair knows our debt ceiling vote is going to be coming up 
soon. It is going to happen sometime in April, maybe May. Maybe it will 
drag out as long as the first week in June. That is a vote where we 
vote to raise the amount of debt this country can enter into. I know a 
lot of people say it is irresponsible not to vote for a debt ceiling 
increase because we have already spent the money. It would be like 
going out and running up a credit card bill and then not paying it. But 
I think it is irresponsible not to act responsibly prior to taking that 
vote.
  What I am so disappointed in is that a vote on this omnibus bill 
before us probably prevents us from going ahead and doing some things 
this spring that we know are responsible and will really drive down the 
cost of government to an appropriate level.
  So I know there is a lot of pressure, probably, in the caucuses--
maybe the caucus on the other side of the aisle that meets at lunch; I 
know there is a meeting again tomorrow--I know there is a lot of 
pressure to get this out of the way. But I know with every cell of my 
body that passing this omnibus right now is absolutely the wrong thing 
to do for the country from the standpoint of good government, and I 
absolutely know it is the wrong thing to do to all of those citizens 
across this country who became involved in this.
  I know there are people on both sides of the aisle who care deeply 
about the future of this country, and I know there are people on both 
sides of the aisle who have some commonality as to what the path 
forward is in making sure this country lives up to its obligations to 
the American citizens, that we don't just live for today. That is what, 
by the way, we would be doing by passing this--living for today and 
passing on those obligations to the future.
  I hope that by the time we take the vote on this bill, it will be 
defeated and that people who deeply care about the future of this 
country will come together, pass a short-term continuing resolution--
which I think most of us in this body know is the responsible thing to 
do--and that we will begin to work after the first of next year, when 
this lameduck session ends, doing the things this country needs most, 
and that is all of us having the courage to make those cuts and do what 
is necessary to get our country back on a sound footing.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I thank the Chair for the time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.

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